


ReRun/ReRoute/ReBoot

by Krasimer



Category: OFF (Game)
Genre: AU, F/F, Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-08
Updated: 2015-02-08
Packaged: 2018-03-11 03:04:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3311534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Queen has a game to run, and Zacharie objects to it.</p><p>What is it that is corrupted in the Zones, besides the Elsen?</p>
            </blockquote>





	ReRun/ReRoute/ReBoot

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a challenge to myself because I have written nothing but stories that are at least 10K in one sitting for a while now. 
> 
> I labeled this as graphic violence, even though it barely rates on my own scale, because some people are a bit more sensitive to some things than others.

"You can't do this."

The Queen turned, her body already healed from what the Batter had done to it. "Do what, Dear Merchant?" she tilted her empty face to one side, as if she were studying him intently. With a wave, the room around them put itself back together.

Zacharie frowned behind his mask. "You can't keep doing this to him."

"I do what I must." she replied loftily, voice taking on an echo that made him more than a little nervous. "Who are you to judge me for it?"

"It's torture!" he hissed, sidestepping a chunk of the ceiling that had been knocked loose in the fight. He waved a hand at the surrounding area, and they both knew he was referring to everything around them. "You keep running him through this game. You keep making him relive something that hasn't actually happened!"

Vader Eloha stopped, her chin raised in what would have been a defiant stare if she'd had eyes. "He is my husband, and he is infected."

"I have to wonder if you aren't." Zacharie shot back as she picked up the limp body of the Judge.

As he watched, she breathed life back into him, waited until he twitched and started stretching his limbs on his own. With a simple gesture, the Judge vanished, presumably back to Zone Zero.

"Whatever do you mean?" she asked, kneeling to pick up the copy of her son that she had crafted specifically for that version of the game. "I am not infected. I know I am not infected. You should know it too. I do not look infected." she gestured slowly down at herself. "I look perfectly normal."

With a glare, Zacharie nodded. "Yes. And so does he, until he comes in here and meets you at the final level of your game."

She turned on him, and he got the feeling that she would have been glaring right back. "What I do with my husband is none of your business." she told him, words covered in a layer of ice so thick that he could almost feel it trying to stab through his heart. 

"Your game is cruel, Vader Eloha." Zacharie's fist clenched at his side. His voice had dropped to a whisper, words nonetheless powerful despite how quiet they were. "You keep pushing him through it again and again, and nothing good is going to come of it. Even if this is the way to get him well again, he's going to come to and remember murdering his wife and child. Repeatedly. Because you couldn't figure out any other way to help him."

As soon as the words had left his mouth, she had him pinned against the wall, nails digging into the soft flesh of his throat. Gasping for air, Zacharie flailed, trying to kick out and get away from her.

"I will tell you this again, Merchant." she hissed, a poisonous tone to her words. "He is my husband. What I do with him to help him get better is none of your concern."

She let go of him, let him drop to the floor, then stepped back.

Zacharie heaved in a breath, coughing, and slumped against the wall. With a satisfied nod, she started to walk away. "And don't think I don't know about your feelings for him." she called back, opening a hole in the wall that lead into her son's room. "It would be best for you to give it up."

"I could-" he cut off, hacking something out of his throat. "I could say the same to you."

She stopped, midstep, and turned on her toes to face him again. "Oh?"

He looked up at her, still crumpled against the wall, and removed his mask. The scars covering his face made her wince backwards a little bit, her shoulder bumping into the wall. His teeth were bared in what could almost be called a grin, if there was any sort of pleasant mood to it. "You, my Dear Queen," he laughed. "Have one less loyal subject than you thought you did. I will not stand by and let you destroy him for the sake of curing him."

With a grunt, Zacharie heaved himself off of the floor, walking his palms along the wall until he was standing again. "And you have made an enemy of me." he let his mask clatter to the ground. 

She stepped towards him again, hand outstretched like she was going to snap his neck. 

Before she could reach him, he disappeared.

Vader Eloha stood there for a moment, alone in the grey of the world she had created. with a shrug of her shoulders, she turned from the empty room, heading for her son. The hole in the wall closed behind her, as smoothly as if it had never been there.

 

~~_Hey_~~_Batter_~~_Batter_~~_Swing_~~

 

The Batter walked down the linear yellow roads of Zone Zero.

Above him, he could feel the pull of the puppeteer, the invisible presence that guided his every movement. Despite the fact that he could feel them, something still seemed wrong. A shape on the road ahead of him made him pause for a moment, the player pulling the strings going idle long enough for him to look at it. It appeared to be a cat, or at least what you thought a cat might look like. The large eyes and teeth were a little off, but the tail and four feet looked right.

"Ah, hello. And what is your name?" the cat greeted, looking up as he approached. The Batter cleared his throat, and the cat immediately shook it's head. "I was speaking to your puppeteer, Batter."

For a moment, everything seemed normal.

It wasn't until the Batter felt the strings controlling him snap that he realized that something had gone dreadfully wrong. For a moment, he saw blood on the bat he carried, an image of a mangled cat laying on the floor at his feet.

The moment passed, and he doubled over, bracing his hands on his knees. 

"Batter?" the cat spoke again, creeping closer, it's sharp teeth glinting in the light. When he tried to speak, the Batter trembled instead, falling backwards to land on the hard ground beneath him. "Dear Batter, whatever is wrong?"

"Judge." Batter finally spoke, one hand clawing at his chest as he tried to breathe.

"Seeing as you cannot possibly be real, as I am the only being in Zone Zero," the cat cocked it's head to the side. "I will answer you. No harm in telling my imagination things, yes?" he purred, rubbing his head against the Batter's knees. "I am the Judge, as you mentioned. Have you seen another like me around?"

With a cough, the Batter shook his head, drawing his legs back underneath him as he tried to clamber back to his feet. 

"Pity." The Judge murmured, racing between his legs. "Hm, it is odd that I cannot tell if you have a puppeteer anymore." it licked a paw, a demure expression on it's face. It watched him, tail twitching from side to side as he breathed heavily, a hand clutching at his side. 

"This feels too familiar." The Batter muttered, looking down at the cat. 

The Judge looked back up at him, it's eyes narrowing. "Entirely." It turned it's tail to him, walking further along the path. "Are you content to follow, or would you rather stay here, specter?"

The Batter followed quietly, hands clenching on the handle of his bat. When he caught up with the Judge, the cat looked up at him, blinking slowly as they walked together. "Tell me, Specter-Batter, why are you here?" a twitch of a tail. "Or do you not know? Because this, if I am pressed to answer, feels almost hilariously off script." It waited for the Batter to answer, then twitched bodily, fur standing on end. 

Ahead of them was another cat. 

"Valerie!" The Judge called. "Valerie, my brother. Whatever are you doing here?"

The Batter reeled backwards, eyes wide under the brim of his hat. Images of the second cat with a beak pushing out of it's mouth bombarded him. Finding his voice, he managed to call out to the Judge before the two cats were any closer together, "Don't!"

With a paw in the air, the Judge went still. "Batter?"

He clenched his bat tighter, feeling the presence of something floating by his shoulders. "Don't go near him, Judge. That's not your brother." he took a step closer, hefting his bat onto his shoulder. Searching for a name to put to the beaked creature, the Batter paused. After a few tense moments, both cats staring at him, he found it. "Japhet!" he called, grimacing as he realized that he had nothing other than his bat to fight with. A look behind him told him that there was nothing there, nothing to back him up. "Japhet, leave Valerie's body. It's still early enough that he will live if you leave him!"

The second cat's face stretched, teeth being pulled apart with a pained noise.

The Judge curled backwards, retreating several feet. "Valerie?" looking at the Batter, the Judge hissed. "What do you know of my brother, Batter?"

"Enough to know that that is not him." the Batter snarled back, bracing himself as the cat's mouth opened and a bird came flying out, increasing in size as it flew towards him, feathers curled wetly against it's body.

Valerie fell to the ground, and the Judge immediately scurried over to him, licking at his face. 

Japhet, on the other hand, wings blazing with flame and eyes narrowed until nothing could be seen but an inky blackness, no light and seemingly no sanity, attacked the Batter. Hooved feet stomped down on him from the air, a beak that was almost as long as his bat snapping in his face.

Swinging upwards as much as he could, the Batter ducked beneath the offending hooves, thankful for the cleats he wore. Every time a stray spark of flame from the phoenix's wings fell towards him, landed on his uniform, he would curse quietly, slapping at it until it went out. Despite his initial advantage in the form of surprising the Zone guardian, the Batter was rapidly losing footing.

A screeching hiss echoed through the air as Japhet plummeted towards the ground, intent on snaring the Batter in his beak. 

Once he got close enough to the Batter that the heat from his wings was burning the man's face, two shadows leapt on him from the side, each one latching onto his neck and clawing at his eyes. It wasn't much, just a simple distraction, but it allowed the Batter to slip out from underneath the bird, gave him time to slam the thick barrel of his bat down on Japhet's skull. With a thud, the phoenix fell to the ground, unconscious.

Breathing heavily again, the Batter walked a little bit away, letting himself collapse on the ground when he was standing in the grass.

Valerie approached first, limping as he walked closer. "My brother," he began speaking quietly, injured paw raised in the air as he came closer. "Has informed me that he believes you are real now. In addition, I have informed him that we need to keep you alive." he sat on the ground next to the Batter. "If I may trouble you for some assistance, I will do my utmost best to make that a reality."

Panting quietly now, the Batter looked at him. "...What kind of assistance?"

"I am not able to walk very well on my own, currently." Valerie gestured to his paw with a turn of his head. "If you might carry me until such a time as it is less injured, then I will help you on your journey." he paused, licked gently at his paw, as if he were trying to soothe it. "If you remember me before it is time for you to face me, then we may have a terrible problem on our hands. It means that the Queen has changed something within her game."

"The Queen?" The Batter frowned at the two cats, the Judge coming over to sit against his brother's side. "What do you mean, 'her game'?"

"Something has gone," Valerie licked his paw. "Very astronomically wrong." he nudged his head against his brother's. "The Queen and her husband were infected with something, and it left them damaged. At first, it was thought that the Queen had managed to escape the rot that lay inside of her husband.

"Over time, however, it was seen that this was not the case." he curled his upper lip back, grimacing as he tried to set his front paw on the ground. "She had been ruined, from the inside out. She set her husband out on a path, made him run from their shared home in an attempt to keep their child safe." Valerie purred as his brother licked at his paw. "It was discovered, by myself and the three Zone guardians, that she had become just as corrupted as the man she was married to."

"I have no puppeteer." the Batter said after a moment, drawing his knees up so that he could rest his elbows on them. The effect was, in startling detail, in connection with his words, much like a puppet with cut strings. 

Valerie pinned him with a gaze. "I should think that does not matter when there is purifying to do. Not, perhaps, in the manner which you are accustomed, but purifying of the Black Queen." he nudged against his brother. "I am aware that the both of you have questions, but we must not linger. There is much to do, and we must leave this Zone before Japhet wakes back up."

"How did he even possess you?" the Batter asked as he got to his feet, then reached down to pick Valerie up.

With a toothy grin, Valerie settled on his shoulder. "I am a cat. As a cat, I must eat. I saw a bird, delectable looking and vulnerable, and I took my chance. It was not, as it turned out, a good idea."

The Judge stood as well, back arching as he stretched. "Dear Valerie, you mentioned that some thing, some detail, must have been changed."

Looking down at his brother, Valerie made a disgruntled sound. "Dear Pablo, it means that someone was removed. It means that the Queen has seen fit to remove a person or persons from her game. It means, however unhappily, that she has decided to destroy something that was accessible in a previous playthrough of her game."

The Batter turned to look at the cat on his shoulder. "Do you know who?"

Blinking at him slowly, Valerie shook his head. "I do not. There is a stop we must make before we depart Zone Zero in it's entirety." he nuzzled into the Batter's cheek. "We must find someone who will be a boon to our journey. Even if you do not like her, it will keep her safe. You must not battle with her."

With that, the three of them set off, leaving Japhet behind.

 

In time, the three of them reached a building that looked almost no different from the rest.

Valerie, however, urged the Batter inwards with a nudge of his back foot against the man's neck. "It is imperative," he explained, "That we retrieve her. Both so that she may help us and that we may help her. If the Queen gets her hands on her, we may as well bid farewell to the world."

"Why is that?" Pablo asked from the ground, tail twitching at his brother's words. "Valerie?"

"Because the lovely lady in question is the Guardian of an element." Valerie answered after a moment. "Down the stairs, that's a good chap." he nosed into the Batter's neck. "Her name is Sucre, and she is a representation of sorts of the element of Sugar. Considering that the Elsens turn into sugar when burned, well..." he trailed off, seemingly lost in thought. "Although, we're much too early in your journey for you to know about that just yet."

The three of them descended into the bowels of the building.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Valerie cleared his throat. "Sucre?" he purred nervously, as if he was scared of calling out too loudly. "Sucre, my dear, we require a moment of your time. Perhaps more, if you are willing to allow it."

A shuffling noise greeted his words, the sound of things hitting the ground. The Batter held his bat at the ready once more, following the noises to the source. 

He found the source in the next room. 

It was a girl, with white hair and matching clothing, digging through a trunk of considerable size. Her movements were frantic, as if she were looking for something important. The chaos that had erupted on the floor of the room made it difficult for the Batter to approach her, and she looked up when he tried. "Valerie?" she whimpered, eyes wide and full of fear.

"Sucre, my dear girl, whatever is the matter?" Valerie urged the Batter closer.

Sucre reached up for the cat, pulling him into her own arms. "I can't find my photos." she whispered angrily. "They're gone." she switched to holding him with one arm as she gestured around the room. "I've looked everywhere, and there is not a single trace of them." With a glance at the Batter, she moved away from him. 

"Why are they important?" Valerie asked her, his tone of voice obviously meant to calm her down. 

"I don't know!" she cried, pouting as she dropped to the floor. "I don't remember. I just remember that there was a picture of someone and I needed to remember their face and I can't find it and it's making me angry!" she waved her free arm at the Batter. "And you brought ducky down here!"

"I assure you," Valerie leaned up and licked her cheek, grazing the rosy spot that sat high on the curve of it. "He is needed, he is necessary."

The Batter stayed silent, simply accepting the cat back when Sucre offered him.

Sucre looked at him, a frown on her pale face. "If you say so. Why did you need to talk to me?" she looked at Valerie, the cat settling himself back on his perch. 

"I was hoping, if I may be so presumptuous, to convince you to accompany us." he spoke softly, tail curled around his back legs. He looked down at his brother. "I think that we have all forgotten the face that you were looking to remind yourself of. There has been a change in the Queen's game, and I fear we are missing someone very important. The Batter, your ducky, relieved me of the job of hosting the Guardian of Zone Two." Valerie grimaced. "We have not yet left Zone Zero."  


With a gasp, Sucre wrapped her arms around herself. "That means that they're coming closer." she whispered.

"It does. I fear the worst if you do not come with us." Valerie swished his tail out, curling it around the edge of the Batter's cap. "I must admit, I will beg you if it is necessary, Sucre. I do not wish for your death, and I wish to solve the mystery that we have been presented with."

She nodded, scooping up a few things from the floor, then skipping towards the stairs. Slung over her shoulder was a pair of tied together ballet shoes, one of them smacking against her back with every step she took. 

The Batter followed, pausing only long enough to grab Pablo off the floor and deposit him onto his other shoulder.

For a moment, the Judge looked affronted, almost offended. When he met his brother's gaze under the Batter's chin, however, he settled down. The group of them gathered at the top of the stairs, Sucre standing up on her toes as her fingers twisted together nervously.

Ignoring the emptiness that he still felt at the loss of his puppeteer, the Batter went ahead of her.

 

Zone One was a nightmare.

The Elsen were scattered, some of them dead and others of their number unconscious. Some of them had bloody holes torn in their sides, like someone had gone rampaging through the lot, armed with vicious claws. 

Sucre cried out when she saw them, hands covering her mouth.

On the Batter's shoulders, Valerie and Pablo hissed, their fur standing on end as they watched spectres flee the streets. On the steps of the Postal Service building, Dedan sat, hunched over. His face was smeared in blood, his eyes wild with madness.

The group approached, and he sat upright as quickly as if someone had smacked him.

"Fuck off!" he shouted, voice echoing in the emptiness of his zone. "What the fuck are you doing here, can't you see that this shit isn't right? Why do you fucking need to see it, why do you feel the need to see it?" he waved a hand towards the rest of the zone. "Death and destruction everywhere! Shit..."

He crumpled again, hiding his face in his hands. "I was supposed to watch over them..."

With a soft mewl of fear, Valerie urged the Batter forward. When they got close enough that they could smell Dedan's unpleasant scent of blood and gore, the Batter kneeled, putting Valerie on the same level as the Guardian.

"Dedan." Valerie began. "I fear that I must speak with you, in connection with a matter most urgent."

"Fuck off..." Dedan whispered miserably, hunching even further into a ball.

"Do you remember what it was that we learned about the Queen?" Valerie spoke quietly, slipping carefully off of the Batter's shoulder. From there he limped over to the Guardian, rising up on his back legs and putting his uninjured front paw on his knee. "Do you remember that she's corrupted?"

Dedan looked up at him, pupils constricted in the harsh light that filled his Zone. "Corrupted..." he parroted.

"Yes." Valerie nodded. "The Queen is corrupted. She has us repeating our actions again and again, with no reprieve from the misery she is causing. Unfortunately, without any agents of change, our journey always ends the same. Pablo dies, you die, Enoch dies, Japhet dies, the Queen assumes a face that looks like she's dead, and then her game starts again. She brings us all back."

With a choked breath, Dedan looked up at the rest of them, his eyes focusing on the Batter. "And it always ends with that dickhead."

"We're trying to change that." Sucre spoke up, poking the Batter's arm. 

"Without a doubt, you indubitably hate him." Pablo added, stretching out on the full expanse of the Batter's shoulders. "But I find that, even when all seems grim, there is a way through."

Dedan stood on shaky legs, then stepped closer. "Do you know who we're missing, shitdick?" he hissed in the Batter's face. "Do you have a fucking clue who we lost? Because I don't. There's an empty space in the basement of this building, and I have no fucking idea who is supposed to go there."

The Batter met his eyes, stood his ground, then nodded slowly. "Can I see?"

"Why the fuck not." Dedan grumbled, then headed into the building, head ducking down as he went through the front door. The rest followed him down into the basement, Sucre nearly tripping on the stairs until the Batter grabbed her arm and steadied her. Valerie was riding in Dedan's arms now, and Pablo jumped off of the man when they reached the bottom of the stairs. "This is it!" Dedan gestured at the empty corner of the basement like he was showcasing a prize of some sort. "Don't know who the hell we're missing, but this is where they're supposed to go!"

The corner in question made the hair on the back of the Batter's neck stand up. With a shrug of his shoulders, he stepped forward, running his fingers over the counter, the hopping over it and looking out at the group of them from behind it. A prickly feeling at the back of his eyes made him rub them, one hand digging into the wood of the counter. 

"...Ducky?" Sucre whispered, coming closer. 

"There must be a leak in here somewhere," the Batter shook his head as he grumbled the words out. He gestured to the drops of liquid sitting on the counter now. "That's got to be it." he exited the booth, a hand lingering on the door as he looked at it again. "It looks like a merchant's booth."

"That's what it is." Dedan deadpanned. "How brilliant of you, shitdick." he cuddled Valerie closer, petting idly at the top of the cat's head.

"Now now," Valerie scolded. "We must try our best to get along."

"We should keep going." The Batter suggested, trying to ignore the part of himself that was screaming to stay right where he was. It was easy enough to quash it, turn his back on it and put it out of his mind.

When they left the Zone, Dedan came with them.

 

Zone Two was much like the disaster that Zone One had been, with one exception.

There was no Guardian in residence at the moment, as Japhet had been left unconscious in Zone Zero. When Valerie mentioned this to Dedan, the Guardian laughed, a grating sound that was almost more miserable than it was happy. "I'm surprised he didn't kill him." he hissed out the words in between bouts of laughter.

Valerie batted at his jacket collar. "If things had gone the Queen's way, he would have, and me with him."

Dedan shut up almost instantly.

As they progressed through the Zones, finally reaching Zone Three, they were all halted at the beginning of the Zone by an angry looking Elsen.

"You, uh, you can't go through here!" he warned them, eyebrows drawn down into a glare that attempted to be menacing. "It's the rules, you can't-" he cut off when Dedan simply pressed his hand into his face, pushing him off to the side. 

"Fuck you." Dedan told him, tone of voice almost polite. "We need to see Enoch."

He hurried the rest of the group through, ignoring the Elsen's cries for help behind him. When they got further in with no resistance, he snorted. "Can't believe it, the Elsen are actually doing something to fight back." he turned to the Batter, rolling his eyes. "Have they ever given you this much trouble? Or do you not fucking remember?"

The Batter opened his mouth to answer him, letting out a fine spray of red mist instead.

"Batter!" Sucre cried out, running back towards him, dropping to the ground and skidding to his side. In the middle of his chest was a hole, more red spewing out from it as he choked on the liquid in his throat. A victorious crow of noise came from the sky above them, and when they all looked up, Japhet was hovering there. His wings were beating the air furiously, hooves pawing uselessly.

Based on the hole in the Batter's chest, Japhet had shrunken himself down to pierce through.

"Let me through, let me through!" someone called, attracting Japhet's attention. Letting out a screech, the phoenix darted towards the source of the noise. Before he could do any damage to the newcomer, however, the man's hands came up and grabbed the bird, caging him within thick fingers. "Well now!" Enoch boomed, his voice shaking the ground almost as much as his steps. "What do we have here?"

Dedan whipped around to face him, glaring at the jovial man. "We have a Batter who seems to be dying, dipshit!" he hissed the words out, hands clenching into fists.

Enoch shook his head. "Come on, Japhet, you know you need to heal him. There is no need for pride here, you might have just brought death to the only one who can fix this mess of a world right now."

In his fingers, Japhet screeched again, hiding his face in his wings. 

"Japhet," the large man scolded, drawing himself up to his full size. "I know you know that you need to heal him." he opened his fingers, settling the bird on the ground next to the Batter. "If you don't, the Queen's game resets. Despite everything that has happened thus far, I also know that you don't want that."

Grudgingly, Japhet leaned his head over the wound on the Batter's chest, blinking a few crystal-like tears into the bloodstained mess. After a few moments, the Batter sat up, clutching tightly at the no-longer injured skin. 

"Much better!" Enoch said cheerily. 

The entire group looked at him. Only Valerie seemed unsurprised. "I see that the changes she has wrought to her game have freed you, my friend." he purred the words, allowing the giant of a man to pick him up in one hand. 

"They have, indeed." Enoch boomed out, scooping the Batter into his free hand and holding him off the ground. "There is a place that we must be for now."

Japhet shook his head, opening his beak and letting something plop onto the ground. The mess that fell from his mouth was a blob of black ooze, tendrils sticking out from it at odd angles. They almost seemed like feet, or tentacles.

Pablo sniffed at it, rearing back and hissing for all he was worth when it tried to jam itself up his nose. "Treachery!" he snarled at the blob, claws out as he smacked it away from anyone else that it might try that to. He looked up at Japhet, the bird's eyes much clearer now. "You pulled this from his chest, gave it no room to grow new roots."

Scooping Pablo up and holding him to her chest, Sucre moved away from it. "Is that the corruption that made him ducky?" she asked quietly, looking up at the man. "He looks normal now."

With a sigh, Japhet flew into the air, alighting on Enoch's shoulder. "If I'd had my mind as my own, I would have explained." he offered, his voice sounding creaky. "Instead, I could not find my voice just yet, and had to act without informing any one of you." he leaned down, nudging his closed beak into the Batter's arm. The Batter didn't respond, other than groaning. "I imagine that he is in an amount of pain that I have never been familiar with." 

Enoch shooed him away. "Then don't push at him." he turned to Dedan. "Have you seen Zacharie?"

"...Who the fuck is Zacharie?" Dedan asked sourly, blinking slowly at the other Guardian. 

"Dedan, my friend, this is no time for jokes. I am aware that you do not always get along with him, but surely you wouldn't be so cruel as to deny the existence of the Merchant?" Enoch frowned at him, then looked to Sucre. "Surely you know your own brother."

"I don't-" she cut herself off, frowning. Absently, she clutched one of her ballet shoes to her chest. "I don't know who you're talking about."

"Oh, but you must know!" Enoch gestured down at the Batter, having set Valerie on his shoulder. "Who else would our dear Batter buy his bats from? Who would run the amusement park?" he made a frustrated noise. "Where else would he regain his health from? The Merchant sells Fortune tickets and Luck tickets." he frowned as he looked the Batter over. "He shouldn't be this bruised."

"There is no Merchant, Enoch." Pablo shook his head. "I do not believe that there ever has been."

The Batter lurched upright in Enoch's arms. "The Queen." he whispered, rearranging until he could see ahead. "The Queen ripped him from the game." every word seemed to pain him, and he clutched at his chest. His normally pale skin was gaining a healthy pink flush, his eyes a vibrant brown underneath the brim of his hat. "The Queen got rid of him for some reason." 

Dedan stepped closer, making sure to stomp the black ooze beneath his foot. "You look alive now, shitdick." he sounded worried, hands fluttering in the air as he tried to figure out what to do.

With a liquid filled cough, the Batter leaned over the edge of Enoch's hands and emptied his throat of the remainder of the black gunk that had corrupted him. Sucre, standing below, scooted to the side with a small noise of disgust. She curled Pablo tighter, letting go of her ballet shoe and letting it swing back and tap against her back. 

"No where to go but forward." the Batter eventually coughed. "No save boxes, no Fortune tickets, no Belial's meat. Just what I have."

"What, you think we are simply going to let you go in there alone?" Japhet preened, stretching his wings out to their full extended size. "There is not an infinitesimally small chance that that is going to happen."

Enoch started moving, then stopped again and scooped Sucre and Pablo onto his shoulder with Valerie. "Shall we?" he rumbled, a small smile curling up the corners of his lips. 

"Why the fuck not." Dedan shrugged. "Might as well."

With the Batter in Enoch's protective hands, they set off again, Sucre dangling her feet down and kicking them slowly in time with something that Japhet was singing.

 

When they reached the Room, the Batter pushed at the sides of Enoch's hands. 

"I need to go from here," he whispered to the large man. "I need to do this on my own feet." When Enoch nodded and kneeled down, setting him carefully on the ground, he looked at the bat still in his hand and frowned at it. A few moments passed, and he rolled it between his hands. 

They all watched as he tossed it off to the side, striding for the door without it.

"Don't you need that?" Dedan asked, an eye narrowed in lieu of having an eyebrow to raise. "That kind of seems fucking important, especially if you're going up against the fucking Queen."

"I have been doing this over and over again," the Batter stopped in his tracks and looked back at the Guardian. "And I have been playing it her way. It's time for me to try my way." he looked at Sucre. "I need you to keep Valerie and Pablo safe, alright? They need to survive. Pablo especially, he's the only one who can take me down if corruption happens again." he looked up at the two cats, then removed his hat. "It goes the same for you two, alright? Keep Sucre safe." 

He plopped his hat down onto the ground, then turned and hurried into the building that the final battle was to take place in. Japhet dove down after him, just barely making it through the door before it slammed shut. When Dedan tried the handle, it was locked.

"What the fuck are we supposed to do?" he asked quietly.

Sucre curled up in Enoch's hand, pulling both of the cats into her lap. "We wait." she whispered back, scratching at their ears until they both purred. "We wait and see if the world changes around us."

Inside, the Batter turned to look at Japhet as the phoenix trotted alongside him. "You didn't have to come with me, you know." he informed the Guardian. "You're a Zone Guardian, this doesn't require you to stick your neck out for me." he scratched at the back of his head as he stared at the hallway in front of him. "Thank you for fixing me."

"I did need to come with you," Japhet countered. "Because I am the only one who can pull the corruption out and then heal the wound that's left over."

The Batter nodded slowly.

"And you are welcome for healing you. I assumed that you would retrieve your memory in full the moment the corruption was cleared from you. Was I right?" Japhet tilted his head curiously.

"I did." the Batter started walking a little faster. "I need to find Zacharie before something happens to him."

"Your wife-"

"She's not my wife." the Batter corrected him gently. "We're not actually human. We're alive, yes, but we're the creations of Hugo. We're facsimiles of his parents, and since he created the both of us, we're siblings. It seems, that in her corruption, the Queen has forgotten this."

"Well..." Japhet seemed to be searching for the right words to respond to that with. "That has to be a mindfuck, to borrow the phrase from Dedan."

The Batter nodded, ignoring how quickly they were progressing through the Room. Instead of what he remembered being put through, it had only taken them a few minutes to reach the final door. "Are you coming in?" he asked the Guardian, a hand on the doorknob. "Or am I facing her alone?"

Japhet nudged his shoulder with his beak. "Why would I come this far and then leave you to rot?"

"Just checking." the Batter murmured, pushing the door open.

On the other side, Vader Eloha sat on her throne, shoulders stiff and spine straight. "Have you come to see him?" she whispered desperately, fingers clutching tightly at the arms of her seat. "Or have you come to kill him again?"

"I've come to save you both." the Batter shook his head as he replied. "You've become just as corrupted as I was."

She stood up from her throne, her add-ons appearing behind her in a startling whoosh of noise. "I am not corrupted!" she hissed, her empty face watching them carefully. "I have never been corrupted, how dare you accuse me in that manner, dear husband?"

He stood still as she descended the dias that her throne sat on. "What, nothing to say? No add-ons to murder me with this time?" she came within arms reach of him, her face almost pressed into his. "Am I not worth killing this time, are you simply going to go for our son's throat?" she raised a hand as if she were going to strike him.

The hit never landed.

The Batter took her hands in his own, pulled her to his chest as Japhet reared back, a clump of black clamped in his beak. Instead of merely wiggling like the one removed from the Batter, this one was writhing, fighting against the hold of the Guardian. 

Setting the Queen on the floor, following her down and pulling her closer, the Batter sighed. "I am sorry for this." he whispered as he swept her hair out of her face. "Japhet?"

The phoenix came trotting over, a black mark on his hoof as he bent down and let a few tears fall into the wound on the Queen's back. She took a shaky breath, sobbing as they made contact. With a breathy sigh, she curled up on the floor, nails digging into the elegant marble that made it.

And then the world exploded around them.

The Batter was tossed back against the wall, Japhet tossed in the opposite direction. As unconsciousness rushed towards him, the Batter felt someone pull his head to their chest, warm hands carding through his hair as he dropped down into the blackness.

 

The first thing he was aware of was a set of strong arms wrapped around his waist.

Across the room from him, Sucre had the Queen's head in her lap, her jacket over the woman's shoulders to help ward off the chill. This left her in nothing more than the X's of tape over her breasts, but not a single person seemed to mind. Nearby, Enoch and Dedan were arguing about something, each of them holding a cat.

Which meant, based on the process of elimination, that only one person could be holding onto him.

The Batter rolled over, coming face to face with the dark eyeholes of Zacharie's mask. "Hello Batter." the merchant grinned behind it, a hand reaching up to pull it back so that it slipped further up his face, exposing his mouth. "I missed you."

With a grunt, he dug his fingers into the shorter man's back, tugging him closer until they were pressed together, front to front. Desperately, he kissed him, pulling at his bottom lip with his teeth, rolling with him until he was laying almost completely on top of him. Zacharie made a muffled noise of token protest, his right leg coming up to wrap around the Batter's waist as they pressed even closer. "I," the Batter began, "Missed you," he kissed him again, breathing into his mouth until they both had to pull back to gain more air. "So much." he gasped the last words out.

Zacharie grinned again, what little exposed skin he had flushed a brilliant pink color. "How soon do you think we can go home?" 

"Soon enough." Japhet announced from above them.

With a squeak of protest, Zacharie flipped his mask back down, holding it in place until his heart stopped racing. "Hasn't anyone ever told you not to sneak up on people?" he hissed at the Guardian, his other hand clenched around the Batter's shoulder. 

"I wanted to know, Batter." Japhet ignored Zacharie for the moment. "Have you regained your name?"

The Batter kissed the mouth of Zacharie's mask, then looked up at him. "I have." he replied. "Do you want to know it?" he sat up slowly, rolling his hips into Zacharie's once. "Or do you simply want to stare at us?"

"If I may have the knowledge." Japhet inclined his head. 

With a small smile, the Batter nodded. "Armel." he whispered it like a secret, and Zacharie went stiff beneath him, hands reaching up to pull him back down and press their foreheads together. He murmured the Batter's name as if it were the only word he knew, the only word left in his entire world. 

"Armel," he whispered back to the man, giving him his own name again. "Armel. My Armel. You came back to me."

Armel propped himself back up on his arms, looking down at the masked man. "Of course I did," he licked his lips, then lowered himself back down carefully, as if afraid of breaking the man beneath him. "I will always," here he paused, nudged the mask up and out of the way. "Always come back to you." he pressed their lips together again.

Japhet stepped away politely, his wings ruffling as he walked back towards the Queen.

"I love you." Zacharie whispered to Armel, fingers tracing his cheeks slowly.

Armel traced his cheeks as well, running soothing fingers over the scars that had been hidden by the mask. "And I love you."

**Author's Note:**

> Now that you have read this: I actually like the Queen. I actually love all the characters of OFF. I just like playing in the sandbox left behind by the game's creator.
> 
> This is the first time I have written anything for OFF, which is kind of a shame because it's fun to write these guys. You'll probably see more of them from me in the future.
> 
> Comments? Concerns? Questions? Handy little box down below to tell me.


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